Re: [Patents] Publishing patents

[Xavi Drudis Ferran <xdrudis@tinet.org>]

El Sun, Jan 18, 2004 at 09:32:16PM +0100, Brenno J.S.A.A.F. de Winter deia:
> Hello,
> 
> In Harmut's e-mail on miscelleaneous news something raises questions:
> 
> - The EPO is no longer publishing full patent information, using
>   DRM (password protected PDF files) and incomplete publication
>   to protect its proprietary database vending partners, thus 
>   making the  FFII Software Patent Statistics 
>   http://swpat.ffii.org/patents/stats/
>   of last year incomplete.
> 
> 1. Doest this mean ordinary people cannot get to the patent information 
> any more?

I guess it's a step more in making it difficult. It all adds up: the
classification, the language, now the price.

> 2. If this is the case, what is the value of a patent? The logic behind 
> it once was quite simple: A person has a patent to share his invention 
> with the world and doesn't loose the rights to the invention. Now one 
> gets rights, but doesn't share information in return.

More or less. It's not that he does nto lose his rights. It is that 
it is given the privelege of stopping others from copeting with him. 
And now it seems he is giving this privilege in exchange for a less 
public disclosure.

> 3. How can anyone prevent that one violates 'secret' patents?
>

It can't be done. With the secrecy period and the long time before you knew
whether an application would be granted, the patent inflation and the 
broading of subject matter you couldn't tell before either. Now 
it's even harder. 

> 4. What is the overall value of a patent now? And where does it differ 
> from copyright then?
>

I don't understand the question. The difference with copyright (well, among 
others)
is that you can't infringe a copyright unknowlingly but you're likely to
do so with a patent (if they're granted on intellectual creations).

-- 
- jo també vull una Europa lliure de patents de programari  -
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Xavi Drudis Ferran
xdrudis@tinet.org